Learn More About SEO with Janette Toral

essential online learning for the digital entrepreneur, with Renzie Baluyut.

Here's a snippet of a post I wrote up over at another blog of ours, inviting digital entrepreneurs from all over to check out this interesting webinar series on Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

So you have a blog, you got all kinds of social media going on, but why is it taking you so long to get any real traffic coming to your site?

Search Engine Optimization (or SEO), while a relatively young industry, is a very high-demand skill among internet marketing practitioners. SEO involves bringing in quality traffic to a blog or a website from search engines through natural (or more appropriately, “organic”) search results.

Companies and organizations scramble everyday to achieve the topmost spot on a search result page, with the notion that the earlier your site appears on the list of search results, the more visitors you will get from the search engines. In effect, what you’re really after is web presence. SEO helps your blog or website achieve just that. Greater traffic potentially means increased sales, or at least an increased involvement with your target internet audience.

Search Engine Optimization is not only a great internet marketing tool, but is also a highly marketable skill set- sought after much by all kinds of companies, even BPO’s and foreign clients.

The Certificate Course on Search Engine Optimization Techniques will be conducted by none other than Janette Toral, one of the leading authorities on e-commerce and internet marketing in the Philippines. Know more about Janette Toral here.

The course will be conducted as a series of webinars-- online workshops and discussions- which means anyone can register and conveniently join in from just about anywhere in the world, as long as they have a good enough PC or laptop, as well as a reliably stable internet connection.

The hands-on webinar series will touch on tips and techniques to essentially get your blog or site to the top of search engine rankings-- search pages on Google, Yahoo, and Bing- and stay there.

Topics that will be taken up for The Certificate Course on Search Engine Optimization Techniques include:

• An introduction to search engine marketing & optimization
• Identifying niche positioning for products and services that you'll sell, how to target customers, buying frequency and motivation.
• Keywords discovery, attractiveness analysis, and implementation.
• Improving your website structure and navigation.
• Improving your website page titles, description, menus, body text, other assets, and good content (on-page optimization)

The course runs for three days: October 6, 8 and 10- a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, from 6 to 8pm, local Philippine time (GMT +8:00). October 6 and 8 will focus more on theory, discussions and demonstration, while October 10 will touch more on comments on work submitted to the speaker for assessment and feedback.

More details on the SEO Certificate Course can be found here on the webinar series' event page. Or you can go right ahead and register for the course straight away.

Cheers, everyone!

Read more...

The Art of No-Cost Marketing, Part 1 of 2

marketing essentials for entrepreneurs and business-folk, with Renzie Baluyut.

Marketing is something every single entrepreneur has to deal with. Particularly so if you're running the show all by yourself, and you have to wear all kinds of hats in the workplace.

The importance of marketing for small businesses and entrepreneurs? We talked about organic growth last week, the importance of building up and getting the most out of your customer base. Marketing helps you achieve just that. People need to know about your products and services, they need to try it out, and if they do like their experience with your brand, you'd definitely want them to keep coming back.

Usually, however, the challenge is this: most start-up companies and even small businesses have to deal with having a very limited marketing budget. Sometimes, with even no marketing budget at all.

Allow me to share with you some tips on how to come up with a modestly effective marketing campaign with hardly any money shelled out from your end.

The Art of No-Cost Marketing: Ten Tips To Jump Start your Cost-Effective Campaign.

For the first part of two on my no-cost marketing feature, let's focus on building and creating. Before you actually get the word out, you need to have a variety of marketing materials available for your target audience, should they decide to check you out to see if you're worth their while.

1. At the very least, start with a logo. Something that speaks about your company, or your products and services. Yes, you can have someone do this for you, but if you're handy enough with a PC, you can come up with a simple yet effective logo for yourself.

2. Have prepared written blurbs about your company, as well as whatever it is you're pushing at the moment. Write-ups about individual products or services are good, but also have something written up about the company. Take it a step further: figure out your mission, vision and philosophy, come up with a tagline, and even put together a short elevator pitch.

3. You will want business cards. Again, you can make some from home using a PC and a printer, and some board paper. Put your logo on it, the name of your brand, and most importantly, your contact details should potential customers want to reach you and do business with you.

4. Put up a simple website or a blog. These days, with so much free blogging services available online, you can come up with a simple, yet fully functional and interactive website for any customer to check out 24/7. In fact, these days, you simply *must* have a blog or a website. Put everything there: your logo and your blurbs, all the contact details you have, related news and updates, even pictures, video, and podcasts later on.

5. Create other useful things which visitors or potential customers can have for free: a free downloadable list of tips, or a guide to doing something better, a recipe booklet, essentially anything of value to your target market. Even better: produce useful and informative podcasts or videos. Maybe a sample of your product or your services. Get them to try you out and get into the habit of coming back for more.

6. Take pictures and video. You could have shots of your team in action, or you in an event- anything to highlight your products and services, and to show how other customers are having a positive experience with your brand.

7. Social media and social networks: go right ahead and put up your Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages. Don't forget to fill these up with all kinds of useful things (see #5), so not only can your market try you out, they can even tell their friends about their experience with you. Take it a step further: go for Multiply as well, or a photo service such as Snapfish or Shutterfly, try out LinkedIn, or even touch base with potential fans of MySpace and Friendster.

8. Brochures and Flyers. Come up with handy print copies for your clientele. It could be a menu, or a list of products and services you could offer. Don't forget to put all your contact details, including your web address, and the URL's to all your social media services.

9. Come up with a media kit- this is most particularly useful for when you'll be doing all sorts of media placements or strategic partnerships and tie-ups later on. The point is to put everything you have about your company or your product/service line into one convenient kit for potential partners, sponsors, and even customers if you wish. Include samples, as well as your brochures and flyers, and pretty much anything else you'd feel putting in that kit.

10. Put together a database. Sure for now you can probably put together the emails of your more immediate friends and family, but in time as you gain more repeat business as well as more customers, you will find that having a customer database will help you with all kinds of marketing and promotional activities.

That's it for now. Part 2 of The Art of No-Cost Marketing Coming right up, as we talk about Getting The Word Around.

Photo courtesy of our friends over at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Cheers, everyone.

Read more...

That's How You Do a Flash Mob

flash mobs never fail to amaze me --Renzie Baluyut.

You gotta give credit to the guys who managed to pull off this stunt.

Here's a little background of what had gone down: Oprah kicked off her 24th season with the Black Eyed Peas' live performance of "I Gotta Feeling" on this stage they set up on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, IL.

But as you can see on this video, it had a special twist:

A well-executed flash mob is always such a joy to watch. Credit for this stunt goes to Michael Gracey- whose past flash mob-organizing credits include putting one together at a Liverpool train station that was used for a phone commercial.

This particular event had about 21,000 fans- with a number of local casting agencies tasked to enlist dancers to help make it happen.

Cheers, everyone!

Read more...

Celebrating One Internet Day 2009

advocating the internet as a means of empowerment, with Renzie Baluyut.

It's called One Internet Day, a day to celebrate the power of the Internet to bring people together. It's about connectivity, empowerment, and synergy. One Internet Day encourages us to step back a bit to appreciate all the things we can now do online- whether for business, learning, discovering and sharing, or for recreation.

Janette Toral of Digital Filipino first came up with the idea in 2000, reaching out to around 300 people in Manila, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro and Davao City to celebrate One Internet Day by providing updates on the development of e-commerce in the Philippines.

One Internet Day 2009: Empowering Filipinos Globally with the Internet

Incidentally, Digital Filipino celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, and once again, Filipinos are encouraged to continue the legacy of One Internet Day 2009. According to Janette of Digital Filipino:

To celebrate that milestone, I—in partnership with ProFora Media—will conduct a series of free webinars that will cover the state of e-commerce in the Philippines, website best practices, Internet as a research medium for children, software process improvement and making money from blogging, among other topics.

From the ProFora Media website:

The webinars for the day feature an interesting selection of topics: e-commerce, outsourcing, internet marketing, training, even video production, web development and blogging. The series is a must-attend for entrepreneurs, professionals and business-folk, as well as for new media enthusiasts, students, and members of the academe.

If you'd like to show your support for One Internet Day 2009, it would be appreciated if you could help spread the word and encourage folks to check out the webinars lined up for September 17. In fact, with the availability, convenience and cost-effectiveness of webinars, more speakers have been encouraged to share their expertise and connect with an online audience.

Also, it can be expected every year hereon and we will call on more individuals to share their knowledge online during this day.

Here are the webinars lined up for One Internet Day 2009:

• “Introduction to Software Process Improvement” by Janette Toral of Digital Filipino PH-SPIN | 9:00am to 10:00am, Sept. 17, 2009.
• “State of E-Commerce in the Philippines” by Janette Toral of Digital Filipino | 11:00am to 12:00nn, Sept. 17, 2009.
• “Website Development Best Practices: A Briefing on the 3rd Digital Filipino Web Awards (2009)” by Janette Toral of Digital Filipino | 2:00pm to 3:00pm, Sept. 17, 2009.
• “Managing Training Effectively and True ROI” by Karthik Subburaman, Country Manager of The ECC International | 3:00pm to 4:00pm, Sept. 17, 2009.
• “Internet as a Research Medium For Children in Elementary and High School: A Briefing on the Philippine Schools Cyberfair 2010″ by Janette Toral of Digital Filipino | 4:00pm to 5:00pm, Sept. 17, 2009.
• “Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) Outsourcing in the Philippines” by Gio Carino of Prodigy AE | 5:00pm to 6:00pm, Sept. 17, 2009.
• “Video Editing For Profit” by Mary Tolentino of Client First | 6:00pm to 7:00pm, Sept. 17, 2009.
• “Blogging For Money: How To Make Money Writing Reviews and News Articles” by Janette Toral of Blog4Reviews | 7:00pm to 8:00pm, Sept. 17, 2009.
  

About The One Internet Day 2009 Webinar Series:

Attending the Digital Filipino One Internet Day webinars are easy and convenient- anyone with a decent PC or laptop can register online, and then plug in from anywhere with a stable internet connection, and join the sessions from the comfort of home, office, or even at a coffee shop or a wi-fi-enabled resort.

You may want to check out the One Internet Day 2009 event page on Facebook right here, so you can reserve your slot for the webinar series on Sept.17.

For details and registration, you might want to check out the official websites of Digital Filipino and ProFora Media.

Cheers, everyone.

Read more...

Focusing on Organic Growth | The Monday Marketing Tip

tips on small business marketing with Renzie Baluyut.

Welcome to The Monday Marketing Tip. Starting today and for the next several Mondays, I will be sharing insights and little notes on marketing communications- little bits of advice for small business owners, entrepreneurs and online professionals.

Marketing, I believe, is something every digital entrepreneur and freelancer should get into. How else do you suppose could people learn about your expertise, products and services? You don't need a large budget to run with the big dogs- all you need is some creativity, some diligence, and ruthless efficiency.

Focusing on Organic Growth

Marketing a small business is totally different from planning and executing a marketing plan for a much larger corporation.

For starters, most small businesses operate on a much smaller marketing budget, or sometimes even no budget at all. And while there are a number of low- to no-cost ways available out there, the objectives remain essentially the same.

Remember: the end goal of marketing is to increase business for the company. This can be achieved by putting together a suitable marketing plan and simply following it through. You might be amazed- many organizations out there don't give marketing and business development any serious thought.

In fact, putting together a marketing plan for any small business isn't too difficult. All you have to do really, is focus on organic growth- increasing your customer base, increasing your output, and increasing your sales. This is by far, the most effective way to grow and expand your business.

How do you achieve increased organic growth? Laura Lake of About.com shares with us four ways to get it done:

1. Acquire more customers
2. Persuade each customer to buy more products
3. Persuade each customer to buy more expensive products or up selling each customer
4. Persuade each customer to buy more profitable products

These four basic tasks only serve to increase your company's revenue and profit. Of the four, it is recommended that the first-- acquiring more customers- should be the focus of any small business. More customers only mean a larger customer base, and having a larger customer base translates to a higher potential revenue.

So for this week, ask yourself: How can I acquire more customers? In your case, you can even be as specific as possible: How can I get more people to know about, and actually get to try our products and services?

There are several ways you can achieve this. Just to rattle off a few low-cost suggestions:

• Harness the power of the internet, social media and social networking tools. Facebook, Twitter, Multiply are all effective marketing tools when used correctly.
• Have a website. Update it regularly and keep it relevant for your target market.
• Even better: have a blog, and allow your target market a means to interact with you.
• Look within your personal network. Know someone who writes for a newspaper? Or works for a radio station? Find out how you can get free plugging, in exchange for a few modest media values.
• Join conventions, trade shows, workshops and seminars. Scope out potential customers here and get your calling cards, flyers and other handouts passed around.
• Collaborate with other small businesses that hit your target market. Remember that there's power in synergy.
• Tap into communities and organizations that would find your services relevant. You can find them online, or among the people in your neighborhood.

All you need is a little imagination really, and the will to follow your plan through. Be creative, be diligent and be efficient. Give yourself challenging yet realistic and achievable goals-- I will bring in ten new customers this week, or I will join three new communities this month and spread the word about the company. Hold yourself accountable, and you can see your business grow slowly, but steadily.

The best part is, you just grew your business without a huge marketing budget-- by working hard and working smart- and you did it all by yourself.

Special thanks to Laura Lake of About.com for inspiring this blog post.

Cheers, everyone.

Read more...

Looking For Royalty-Free Music?

scouring the web for worry-free music with Renzie Baluyut.

I was working on a bunch of promotional videos just earlier on- nothing too fancy, just a few clips to promote our upcoming events. It's been some time since I've done any significant work editing video anyway. But it's always fun- I miss the days I get to do work on audio and video.

Anyway, for those of you putting vids together, with plans of uploading your work up on video services on YouTube, MySpace, Vimeo, etc., you know that one of the more important concerns is making sure you don't step on any copyright toes. Also great if you're in the business of creating and producing your own podcasts and video-blog entries.

There are a lot of great resources for all kinds of royalty-free music available online. One site I've managed to find is Kevin MacLeod's Incompetech.com. His work is licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0". Which generally means it's cool to use his music as long as you give him proper and due credit.

I've managed to get a good number of tracks from Kevin MacLeod's site. And I've actually found a particular piece just perfect for my video project. But just like any business-savvy netrepreneur, you will probably want to have several sources of royalty-free music bookmarked.

I hope to compile a good list of these sites soon for all to share and support. That's the least we can do for these forward-thinking musicians, artists and fellow entrepreneurs who have made our lives easier with what they do best.

Cheers, everyone!

Read more...

Webinars Are The Way To Go

new ways to do business with Renzie Baluyut.

I have recently attended some webinars with ProFora Media- a virtual events company based in the Philippines. There are advantages to being able to attend online workshops and seminars right at the comfort of your own bedroom. All you need really is a stable internet connection and a good enough PC and laptop.

There were quite a number of good topics this week: there were talks on social Media, e-mail marketing, setting up Amazon aStores, blogging and others. Our speaker was broadcasting live from Australia, and we had participants from all over the Philippines- Metro Manila, Bacolod and Cebu. The audio was fairly seamless, there was a good degree of interactivity, and all in all, the webinars were executed rather well.

I just realized that, particularly for small businesses and entrepreneurs, there's simply a huge potential for it. Other than the obvious purpose of holding all kinds of online seminars and meetings, I thought this platform can also be used for:

• Managing several branches or outlets all over the country.
• Keeping tabs of your sales team no matter where they are.
• Building yourself as an authority on a particular topic or subject matter, as a means of extending the reach of your blog, website or company.
• Chat party sessions, or town hall meetings- great for all kinds of communities from anywhere around the world.
• A great way for artists and musicians to meet their fans

And any of these can mutate in so many other different ways.

The challenge for webinar event organizers, however, in my opinion, is to get people to try out webinars and experience it for themselves. Webinars are a convenient and cost-effective way to get learning, at the very least. It's still a great way to do networking for those who want it, and I've already laid down some ideas for anyone with a business or organization.

For those who want to give webinars a try, the guys of ProFora Media and Digital Filipino have a series of online talks, in celebration of Digital Filipino's 10th anniversary- The ProFora Media Lightbulb Sessions- on Thursday, 17 Sept 2009. The webinars for the day include:

• 11am - 12nn "The State of E-Commerce in the Philippines" by Janette Toral of Digital Filipino
• 2pm - 3pm "Briefing on the 3rd Digital Filipino Web Awards (2009)", by Janette Toral of Digital Filipino
• 5pm - 6pm "New Trends in Outsourcing", by Gio Carino of Prodigy AE
• 6pm - 7pm "Online Video Marketing", by Mary Tolentino of ClientFirst
• 7pm - 8pm "Blogging For Money: How To Make Money From Writing Blog Reviews and News Articles", by Janette Toral of Blog4Reviews

Interested parties can contact ProFora Media directly, by checking out their Facebook page over here, or emailing them here: info@proforamedia.com.

As a public service, here's a little something about both Digital Filipino and ProFora Media, in the event you'd like to check them out:

Digital Filipino started out as an e-commerce resource website, run by Janette Toral, but has since then evolved into a community of web professionals, online entrepreneurs, new media enthusiasts and educators all over the Philippines.

Digital Filipino also serves as a venue to marketing Janette's books, articles, events, and advocacies. This site started last September 17, 1999 and continues to help a lot of people with their respective e-commerce and internet marketing needs.

Visit the website: http://www.digitalfilipino.com/
Join the community! http://digitalfilipinocom.ning.com/
Check out our blog: http://digitalfilipinoclub.blogspot.com/

ProFora Media is the Philippines' premier virtual events company, providing organizations, professionals and knowledge-seekers with new and innovative ways to learn and do business that are cost-effective and productivity-efficient.

Find out how webinars can work for your company today! Contact ProFora to attend one of our webinar, or arrange for a demo for your organization today.

Our website: http://www.proforamedia.com/
Check out ProFora on Facebook!
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ProForaMedia

Cheers, everyone.

Read more...